Just another Monday
by canttouchthis87
Summary: Following the events of Lovers Walk (Season 3), Buffy wakes up to discover she's experiencing the day again. Mischief ensues as she and Xander attempt to break whatever curse is making their lives miserable.
1. Chapter 1

**Day 1**

At 7:30, Buffy awoke to the obnoxious blaring of her alarm clock. After ungracefully smacking the snooze button, she buried her head back in her pillow. Realizing this was the fifth time she had repeated this process, she unwillingly pulled herself out of bed and got ready for the day, mumbling to herself how unfair it was she had to go to school only hours after finishing patrol.

Through her cereal and toast she didn't say a word, merely letting out a small grumble to acknowledge her mother's presence. After grabbing her bag, she walked lazily to school with her eyes barely open. She walked into Trig class five minutes late.

"Buffy," her teacher began as she walked into the classroom, "you are aware that class starts at 8:20?" Buffy simply nodded and proceeded to take her seat between Willow and Xander.

"So how was patrol last night?" Xander asked her in a whisper.

"Fine." She responded, still half asleep. She yawned a few times, earning herself another reprimanding look from her teacher. She had half a mind to just leave and sleep in the library but knew her mom wouldn't be too happy with her and she still felt bad for running away to LA the previous summer. The bell rang, and the trio headed out into the crowded halls.

"I've been working on my magic a lot. I think I'm close to being able to do some pretty cool stuff like this one spell I'm working on that..." Willow droned on while Buffy and Xander kept up the appearance they were paying attention.

"That's really cool Willow." Buffy stated at what she assumed was the appropriate time. Xander agreed and Willow gave them both a small smile, oblivious that they hadn't really been paying attention at all.

"Duty calls." Xander said as Cordelia walked past. She smiled at them before the two wandered off into some closet.

"I still find that hard to believe." Willow said, shaking her head. Buffy chuckled and nodded her head in agreement.

"Imagine going back two years and telling them they would be together - and happy. That would be amazing." Buffy reiterated.

"SO, how is Angel?" Willow somewhat uncomfortably changed the subject.

"I don't know. Right now, the only thing I've been really thinking about is getting him back to 100%. It's hard though because despite all that's happened I still love him. But I know it's not going to happen." Buffy told her friend sadly.

"I'm sorry Buffy." Willow responded earnestly. As they reached the computer science room, Willow said goodbye to her friend and Buffy headed to her next class.

"Giles!" Buffy called out as she headed to the library for lunch and her free period.

"In here, Buffy." She heard him shout from his office.

"I got your message, what's going on?" She asked concerned.

"Oh, it's nothing too much to worry about. I just got a message from an associate of mine that due to some planetary alignment as well as tidal shifts, the mystical effects of the hellmouth will most likely be acting up. This might mean more or less demons will be drawn here - I'm not too sure but I just want to make sure you're being vigilant." Giles explained to her.

Buffy shrugged her shoulders, "Constant vigilance. Got it boss," and proceeded to sit down at the library table and eat her lunch. Shortly after, Xander and Cordelia walked in, the latter giggling about something or another. "Hey Buffy." Xander greeted her as he and Cordelia sat at the seats across from her. "So any new evil in town?"

"Apparently there's some mystic mojo going down at the hellmouth but Giles doesn't make it sound like it's a big deal." She finished with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Fun stuff." Xander responded, obviously focused more on his food than anything else on the room, "So anyway..."

After dinner, Buffy snuck out as she did almost every night to spend time with Angel in the mansion. Upon crossing the threshold, she was somewhat disheartened to find him brooding next to the lit fireplace. "Hey." She greeted as she entered the open space.

"Hey Buffy." He responded still deep in thought.

"So...how are you feeling?" She asked somewhat uncomfortably.

"I'm doing alright." He responded shortly, "How about you?"

"I'm good." The two stood still for a moment not quite sure what to say, "So uh, you wanna work out?" She asked him to which he perked up and the two began to spar. After fighting for a few minutes, she noted his increased strength and that soon he wouldn't need her to bring him blood and spar with him. After about ten more minutes had passed, she found herself lying uncomfortably close on top of him, their faces growing closer together when her cell phone rang.

Awkwardly, she jumped off of him and ran to her bag to get the phone. "Hello." She said and then her eyes grew wide. "Mom? Yeah, I'm patrolling." Suddenly, she heard another voice from within her house and immediately hung up the phone. "Angel, we gotta go. Spike's at my house."

The two promptly arrived at the Summers' house to find Spike and Joyce enjoying a nice hot cup of cocoa. After barging into the house, Buffy found her hand around Spike's neck, forgetting about Angel who was stuck outside. "Buffy! Your ex, Angel, he's trying to get in!"

"Angel, why don't you come in?" She stated, letting go of Spike once the bleached Vampire realized he was overpowered. "Why are you in my house?" She asked the Vampire, all the while her mom looked quite confused over the entire situation. Spike went on to explain the ordeal with Drusilla and how he had captured Willow and Xander. Buffy and Angel reluctantly agreed to help.

Buffy found herself lying in bed quite late, thinking on how she would once again not get enough sleep. She mused on how they beat up a ton of Vampires and helped out Spike though in the end Cordelia and Oz found their lip-locked friends anyways. She then remembered how she told Angel they couldn't see one another anymore as she slowly fell asleep.

 **Day 2**

Buffy grumbled as her alarm clock blared on the nightstand next to her. After the hell of a day she had, the last thing she wanted to do was get up and go to school but unfortunately it seemed she had no choice. Giving in to fate, she got up and turned her alarm off.

Luck would have her late once again to school as she slid into her usual Trig seat. "Buffy," the teacher began, "you know class starts at 8:20". Buffy nodded as she looked around and suddenly felt a sense of deja vu.

"How was patrol last night?" Willow asked her. Buffy and Xander both looked at her incredulously, amazed that she would ask that knowing what happened the night before. Willow looked taken aback and went back to taking notes. Buffy didn't pay too much attention in class but when she did she got the distinct feeling she had heard it all before. Eventually, the bell rang and the class filed out and into the hall.

"I've been working on my magic a lot. I think I'm close..." Willow began, leaving both Xander and Buffy to look at one another confused. "What is it guys? You two keep looking at each other like there's something going on did I miss something?" Willow asked.

"It's just...didn't we have this same conversation yesterday?" Xander said.

"How could that be possible? Yesterday was Sunday!" Willow stated.

"No." Buffy said, her face marked in confusion, "Yesterday was _Monday_." She stated.

"Oh God." Xander interrupted as he kept his head low and Cordelia approached them.

"Xander, what's wrong?" She asked upon seeing him. Again, Buffy and Xander looked at one another, unsure of why Cordelia wasn't giving him the silent treatment as promised, and further surprised she was out of the hospital and back at school so soon. Unsure of what to do, Xander walked away with Cordelia hoping maybe she just wanted to talk alone.

"Something's going on." Buffy said, shaking her head.

"Giles!" Buffy yelled as she entered the library, still feeling eerie from the entire day.

"In here, Buffy." She heard him shout from his office.

"Someone handed me a note saying you needed me here, what's up?" She asked.

"Oh, it's nothing too much to worry about. I just got a message from an associate of mine that due to some planetary alignment as well as tidal shifts, the mystical effects of the hellmouth will most likely be acting up. This might mean more or less demons will be drawn here - I'm not too sure but I just want to make sure you're being vigilant." Giles explained to her.

"Uh, you already told me that yesterday." She informed him, rubbing her fingers on her sinuses.

"You're mistaken Buffy, I just got the phone call today." Giles told her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"No. I'm not. What's going on? Why does everyone think it's Monday again?" Buffy asked as Giles continued to look at her funny.

"...but we went over Radical Reconstruction yesterday!" Xander reemphasized.

"How would that be possible sweetie, yesterday was Sunday!" Cordelia stated somewhat condescendingly. The three sat down and a few moments later, Oz and Willow walked in happily holding hands again leaving Buffy and Xander extremely confused.

"Okay!" Buffy quieted everyone down. "Who here thinks yesterday was Monday?" She and Xander raised their hands. Everyone else looked at them with their mouths open.

Xander and Buffy both shook their heads. "Buffy, what's going on?"

"Well, from what I've deduced, Xander and I have already experienced this day." She stated burying her head in her arms.

"Are you saying you traveled back in time?" Giles asked skeptically.

"Not intentionally." Buffy mumbled.

"Are you sure you didn't just have a very vivid dream?" Willow asked.

"I would say that was it except the deja vu is uncanny and there's the fact that Xander's experiencing it too." Buffy looked at Xander who just nodded his head, the two friends thinking the same thing.

"Alright, well, assuming you two aren't crazy can you think of anything that happened yesterday that would cause the day to repeat itself?" Giles asked. Xander and Buffy stiffened, recalling Oz and Cordelia walking in on a lip locked Xander and Willow.

"Well, there were a few things that happened but I mean, nothing that I could think of that would have caused _this_." He explained.

"What happened?" Cordelia asked.

"Oh," Buffy began, "Uh, Spike came to town, kidnapped Willow and Xander, you guys came and rescued them though." She told them smiling.

"Yeah, Oz, you used your werewolf sense to sniff Willow out. It was very impressive." Xander added looking relieved that Buffy didn't mention anything else.

"Spike? He's back in town?" Giles grumbled.

"Drusilla left him or something. Basically, he came in town, annoyed us, and then left." Buffy explained. "But none of this explains why we are reliving this day, and further why only Xander and I can remember, since all of you as well as everyone else at school seems utterly oblivious." She continued.

"Buffy," Xander stated uncomfortably, "Could you and I have a word...in private?"

"Sure." Buffy responded pretty sure she knew what it was all about. The two went into the crowded halls where the noise of other students muffled their own conversation. "What's up?" She asked him.

"I just remembered, in the chemistry room where Willow and I were captured by Spike, Willow was about to perform some delusting spell. What if, after the whole, us getting caught thing, Willow performed some spell to take back the day so you know, we wouldn't get caught again?" Buffy contemplated this.

"You know, that does seem like a good explanation. But taking back the day, would she really go _that_ far?" Buffy asked.

"I dunno. But if that's the case, as long as Willow doesn't work the spell again everything should go back to normal." He stated with a slight shrug.

"Alright." Buffy responded.

Instead of going to Angel's after dinner, Buffy headed with Xander to the chemistry lab to thwart Spike. The two entered while Willow finished adding a few herbs to the potion she was making. "Uh, Buffy, what are you doing here?" She asked uncomfortably.

"You know, making sure Spike doesn't kidnap you guys." She informed her.

"Of course!" Willow mentioned, feeling stupid for having forgotten Buffy and Xander had apparently already lived that day.

Spike walked into the room, frowning as soon as he saw Buffy was there. Buffy immediately punched him in the face, reluctantly keeping him alive in case he had something to do with the day repeating. "Spike! I'm going to save us a lot of time and pain. You don't want a love spell - you just want to go to Drusilla and torture her until she comes back to you." Spike looked at her somewhat confused.

Shrugging his shoulders, the Vampire acknowledged his plan wouldn't work with Buffy in the way and drunkenly headed back to his car. "Well, that crisis is averted." Buffy stated, relieved. Getting Spike out of the way, Buffy suddenly remembered Angel and how she had previously told them they couldn't see each other anymore. "I gotta go." She told her friends before heading over to the mansion.

Rather than brooding by the fire, she found Angel practicing his Tai Chi. She watched him for a few minutes, admiring his concentration until she coughed to make her presence known.

"Hey Buffy." He said, turning to face her.

"Hey Angel." She replied, wondering how this conversation could be so awkward even the second time around. "Okay, this is gonna sound weird, but do you remember living this day before?" Angel just looked at her confused. "Alright, do you remember Spike coming into town?" At this Angel's face lit up.

"Spike's in town?" He questioned, looking anxious.

"You don't remember." Buffy mumbled to herself, "Not to worry, Spike's not in town anymore. Alright, we need to talk." And as painful as it was, Buffy once again explained to Angel she could no longer see him.

Buffy got to her room late once again and called Xander and Willow to ensure no strange spells were cast. She went to sleep, relieved the day was over - again.

 **Day 3**

Beep. Beep. Be- "Oh shut up!" Buffy yelled at her alarm clock as she got out of bed. Without paying attention to much of anything at all, she changed and headed downstairs. "Morning mom." She said as she grabbed some cereal and headed down for breakfast. Sitting on the table was a newspaper, which she would've ignored if it weren't for the date mocking her.

"It's Monday?" She groaned at her mom.

"Yes honey, it is." Her mother told her, figuring she was just unhappy about having to go back to school.

"I'm going back to bed." Her mom protested but Buffy convinced her she felt sick and proceeded to sleep through the rest of the morning.

"Buffy!" Xander shouted as he ran up to Buffy's room, despite Joyce's protests and confusion. Buffy grumbled before getting out of bed and putting on a bathrobe. "It's Monday again."

"I know. Why do you think I went back to sleep?" Buffy asked her friend. "Does anyone else remember?"

"No, just us. It's getting really annoying too." Xander informed her, shaking his head.

"What should we do? I mean, what can we do? Is the day just going to keep repeating itself?" Buffy asked.

"Well, I don't know. That's why I came over here - I figured you were trying to figure it out." He told her doubtfully.

"Yeah, well every time this day has started I've been really tired so this time I figured hey! At least if the day's going to start over again, I'm going to get a lot of sleep!" Buffy said. "Now that I'm up, I guess we should go to the library and see Giles." She began to leave her room, not bothering to get changed.

"You're going to school in your pajamas and a bathrobe?" Xander asked.

"You know, I really don't care right now." She responded and was out of the house before her mother could utter a word.

"We're stuck in a time loop." Buffy told the group as they assembled in the library.

"What are you talking about?" Cordelia asked.

"What I'm saying is that this day keeps repeating only Xander and I are the only ones who remember." Buffy explained looking incredibly bored.

"Is that why you're wearing a bathrobe and pajamas?" Willow asked.

"No. Well, sorta. I'm wearing this because I just woke up and I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be Monday again and so well - I really don't care." Buffy explained.

"I'll remember." Xander chimed in.

"So?" Buffy asked, shutting Xander up.

"Now that you mentioned the time loop, you should know I talked to a colleague -" Giles began but was interrupted.

"Ya ya, mystical energy. Boring." Buffy rolled her eyes.

"We think Willow cast a spell and it went awry or who knows, the mystical energy stuff meddled with it." Xander brought up, causing Willow to redden a bit.

"I didn't do anything!" Willow defended herself.

"Well, not that you remember. Don't forget, you're stuck in the unknowing part of the time loop." Buffy pointed out.

"Could you maybe explain what happened and the nature of the spell you think Willow performed?" Giles suggested.

Buffy looked at Xander who stared daggers at her. "Let's just say, something happened that we think may have made Willow inclined to make the day restart." She told them cryptically.

"Can't you give us any more details?" Willow asked, somewhat curious.

"No." Xander and Buffy responded, unwilling to create the rukus that would follow the knowledge of the truth.

"Oh!" Buffy stated with a snap of her fingers. "I almost forgot, Spike should be coming into town soon!" She pointed out causing the other Scoobies to panic. "Don't worry, he's just going to come into town and try and get Willow to do a love spell, no biggie." They didn't look all that relieved but nodded anyways. "So, is there some sort of anti-Willow's spell we can do?" She asked in all seriousness.

"Let me think." Giles started and began pacing his office. "There is an anti magic spell we can do that is relatively broad. It should work for this sort of thing."

"Great!" Xander exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. "Let's do it!"

The group headed to the magic shop, Buffy still in her bathrobe, while unknown to them Spike was using underground means to get to the same place.

"Mr. Giles!" The man at the counter greeted with a large smile on his face. "What can I do you for today?" He asked. Giles and the man talked at the counter while the teenagers wandered around. Buffy was in the back of the store when suddenly she felt something.

"Guys, I think someone's back here." Quietly, Buffy, Willow, and Xander crept towards the back.

"Ow!" The group heard and Buffy proceeded to grab the collapsed Spike.

"Spike! There you are!" Buffy exclaimed somewhat relieved.

"Slayer." He grunted and started looking around for the bottle of whatever he was drinking.

"Ok. I get it. Drusilla left you blah blah leave town." She told him.

"No. Must have revenge...I'm the big bad." Spike began droning until he literally passed out. The group shrugged.

"What do we do with him?" Willow asked, slightly concerned.

"Who cares?" Xander retorted.

"I wanna keep him alive - for now. Make sure he has nothing to do with the damn time loop." Buffy made the final decision and the group found some rope and tied him up, earning them an awkward look from the store clerk. Covering him with a large jacket, the group rushed the now literally smoking Vampire to the car.

"Spike's smoking!" Oz pointed out, saying his first words in a while really. The group chuckled.

Back at the school, the group kept Spike locked in a cage while they performed the anti magic spell. After the spell was successfully performed, a small poof sound was made and a wif of smoke came from a small alter. "Well, I'm glad that's over with." Buffy stated. "Now, I know I slept all day but I'm really tired and I'm going home." She said, noting to herself she'd end her and Angel's - well, whatever it was - thing tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Day 4**

Beep. Beep. Something wasn't right. Buffy was way too tired, and she knew it. After sleeping most of the day before she really shouldn't have been tired at all, especially being the Slayer with superpowers and what not. But here she was, as if she had been up all night patrolling.

"Not again." She said before writing a note and putting it on the door and going back to bed.

 **Day 8**

Joyce walked upstairs, concerned as to why her daughter wasn't downstairs yet when she saw a note on her door:

 _Mom, we're stuck in a time loop. I'm really tired. This isn't a ploy. When Xander comes over, tell him to wait in the living room_.

A little angry and confused, Joyce shrugged it off and went back downstairs to finish the laundry.

 **Day 10**

As he did every other day, Xander woke up five minutes before his alarm clock and basked in the glory of a full night's sleep. Then, he would realize that once again it was Monday and he would whine and grumble before either going to school or Buffy's depending on his mood.

After the anti magic thing spell failed, Buffy had told Xander to solve it since she was out of ideas. He figured she thought it was all a bad dream or something that would resolve itself in time. A part of Xander thought maybe it would all go away on its own too. But now, on the 10th Monday, he was sick of it.

Ignoring his parents, he ran out of the house and headed straight to Buffy's. Upon arriving there, he got the usual questioning look from Joyce as he sprinted past her and burst into Buffy's room. "Buffy!" he yelled to wake her up.

"I'm sleeping!" She cried back not really paying attention

"Buffy. I know you're tired - or have been for 10 days. But that's just it Buffy - its been Monday for 10 days and unfortunately it's up to us to fix it!" Xander told her in a voice far more confident than how he felt.

"Now don't you think that's a just a little self-centered Xander? Maybe we're the only people in Sunnydale aware of the time loop but for all we know it was started by someone in, oh I don't know, somewhere else." Buffy pointed out with her hands on her hips.

Xander shook his head, "Do you honestly think that's the case?" Buffy grunted unintelligibly and covered her face with her comforter. "You're tired. I get it. But if we could just finish the day you wouldn't be tired anymore!" Xander pointed out.

Buffy peeked her head out of the covers and gave Xander a skeptical glare. "You know, come to think of it you're always mister perky in the morning." Xander's face went from determined to guilty. "Oh, don't tell me! You got a full night of sleep?" Xander only slightly noded his head. "Well that's just great!" Buffy finished and proceeded to get out of bed and put on her robe. It took Xander a moment to realize he was following Buffy out of her room.

"Where are we going?" Xander asks.

"We're going to go _solve_ this thing." She responded.

"Time loops. Go." Buffy said pointing to Giles upon immediately entering the library. She rolled her eyes at the incredulous looks coming for the other scoobies who all seemed to be mid bite of their lunches. "Mystical energy. Hellmouth. Time Loop. Only Xander and I remember. Anything else?"

"Huh?" Cordelia let out while everyone else just continued to stare at the usually put together Slayer standing in pajamas, a poofy bathrobe and bed head.

"Okay. Since Buffy is tired, I'll explain. We're all stuck in a Time Loop. Only Buffy and I remember - it's been Monday for 10 days. At first we thought it was Willow but we tried a couple of things and nothing worked. Now we really don't know but we're really sick of it so ya. We want it to stop." Xander explained.

"I think my explanation was sufficient." Buffy whispered to Xander.

"Well, _they_ obviously didn't think so." Xander responded and then their attention turned back to the group.

"Are you sure-" Giles began but was cut off.

"It's not a slayer dream. Or deja vu. _Trust_ me." Buffy responded holding her hand up. "Is there anything on time loops and a demon who can cause them?"

"I'm not sure. But I'll be sure to check." Giles responded.

"Quickly. This time tomorrow, none of you will even remember this conversation." Buffy emphasized. "Well good luck. Xander and I have a few other leads we need to follow up on so call us if you find anything."

"Magic shop?" Xander asked as the two hustled out of the library.

"Magic shop." Buffy affirmed.

"So Xander. What's happened the last 6 days?" Buffy asked, suddenly a little curious.

"Well," Xander responded, "not much. I usually just find a way to trap Spike, I don't get caught with Willow, and all ends happily ever after."

"Usually?" Buffy asked, her eyebrows raised.

"There was one time that Spike kind of managed to kidnap us." Xander looked somewhat ashamed. Buffy snorted her amusement.

"And then what happened?" Buffy asked, now genuinely curious.

"Oh, Willow was freaked but I was all heroic. Of course, I _did_ know that Oz and Cordelia were coming for us." Xander explained proudly.

"Good for you. We're here." Buffy pointed a few feet ahead to the magic shop. The pair walked in and split up, Buffy slowly walking to the back to find Spike scanning the shelves for any relevant books.

"Ah ha! Got ya!" Buffy said yanking as much of Spike's hair as she could.

"Slayer! Immm gonna gett..." Spike began, blantantly drunk. Buffy looked at him curiously.

"You know, I don't recall you usually being this drunk," she contemplated. "Anyways, are you doing anything...magical? Maybe doing something to cause a time loop?"

"No." He responded quickly. Buffy squinted her eyes at the blonde Vampire.

"What are you hiding Spike?" Buffy asked.

"Oh fine! If you must know, I've relived this day 4 times." Spike rolled his eyes.

"You WHAT?" Buffy asked, alerting Xander.

"Buff, what's going on?" Xander asked, concerned.

"Spike here _remembers_ the last four days."

"He WHAT?" Xander exclaimed. Spike merely shrugged. "Well, at least that explains how he was able to kidnap us. Come to think of it, I should have realized he seemed prepared for my trap..."

"Wow Xander, you really didn't notice that Spike seemed to be learning?" Buffy questioned her friend. Spike tried to use the moment to sneak away. "Not so fast you. Explain."

Conceding defeat, Spike began, much more coherently than one would imagine given his state, "Well, it all started 4 days ago. Or today. You see, 'last' night I went to bed outdoors accidentally and woke up with the sun on me - not fun I tell ya. By the time I went to bed 'tonight', I was well out of Sunnydale. Therefore when I woke up outside _in_ Sunnydale, I realized there was something off. That's when I realized the day was repeating itself so I figured it was a gift and I had a chance to fix the day. Of course, it never went to plan but it kept repeating so I kept trying."

"Alright so the three of us appear to be the only people who remember today." Buffy summarized, "and notably we remember this day 10 times whereas you only remember it 4. So something happened four days ago to bring you into the fold." Buffy commented and turned to Xander.

"Don't look at me. Besides Spike actually succeeding in kidnapping us the other day he's seemed completely in character." Xander responded.

"Could it be the witch?" Spike suggested.

"No, we already tested that theory." Buffy dismissed it.

"Well as much fun as this little chat is, I have a kidnapping to plan out." Spike began to leave before getting stopped by Buffy.

"Seriously? You thought we were just going to let you _kidnap_ Xander and Willow? Xander's like, a foot away from you right now!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Yeah." Xander supported.

"Eh, it was worth a try." Spike responded before taking another swig from his flask. Buffy and Xander rolled their eyes at the Vampire.

"Well, let's see, what all else happened today?" Xander questioned, now pacing the back corner of the magic shop to the best of his ability.

"Hm. I usually go and see Angel whose nearly all better." Buffy mentions. Xander nearly stops.

"Angel? Man Buffy, I nearly forgot about Angel. And I don't mean that in a 'I hate him' way but a where has he been way." Xander rambled on.

Buffy frowned. "Huh, I guess I haven't thought about it. The first few days I made a point to see him. I actually broke off contact with him those first two times but..." Buffy was deeply in thought at this point.

"But what Buffy?" Xander asked anxiously.

"Sorry I spaced out a moment – I guess there's just no point" Buffy shook her head. "I think Spike here is the key - if we can figure out why he's joined us, we can solve this thing."

"Sounds good to me."

 **Day 11**

"Alright everyone!" Buffy exclaimed to the Scoobies assembled in the library, "We're stuck in a time loop - have been for what - 11 days now?" Xander nodded in confirmation, "Well anyways, we don't know why. Only Xander and I remember, It's not Willow's fault. It might have something to do with mystical convergence, Giles, we don't know. What we do know," Buffy now turned to start writing on the chalk board set up behind her, "is that 5 days ago, Spike started reliving the day." Buffy pointed to the stick figure of Spike she had on the board.

"Woah hold on a minute - Spike's in town?" Willow asked, a little frightened.

"Oh yeah sorry. He's in town because Drusilla blah blah whatever it's unimportant however we need to figure out _why_ the day keeps repeating itself. Since it doesn't appear to be magical we figure it's more of a 'something needs to happen today' thing so any ideas?" Buffy finished and looked around at her friends expectantly. They all stared at her and Xander like they had grown another eye. "What?" She asked.

"It's just - is this a joke Buffy?" Giles asked while resisting the urge to clean his glasses.

"No, watcher mine, this is not a joke. I am _sick_ and _tired_ of this day repeating and since there appears to be no scientific or witchy reason I'm trying to figure out what we did wrong that first day. Well, one thing went wrong but that was easily fixed and that's besides the point." Buffy paused to reorganize her thoughts, "Just, throw out stuff, help me out here, people."

"Maybe you should have gone left." Oz stated.

"I'm sorry?" Xander asked.

"You know, at one point, you went right, and you should have gone left." Oz reiterated. The group looked at him and contemplated it for a moment.

"Uh, maybe someone was supposed to die?" Willow suggested. Everyone immediately turned to her, shocked. "No! It's just - there was an episode of the X-Files where this day kept repeating over and over again for this girl because every time the day went wrong until finally she died. And then of course the day stopped repeating." The group contemplated this.

"Well, that was a TV show." Xander responded rather pointlessly.

"Hey! You guys were the one who said to start throwing out ideas." Willow rebutted.

"Point taken." Xander conceded.

"Alright well since you guys are incredibly unhelpful we're going to meet up with Spike and see if _he's_ done any better. Giles, if you could make with the Watcher thing and research this we'd appreciate it." Buffy stated before she and Xander walked out of the library, annoyed.

"Did we just get ditched for Spike?" Cordelia asked incredulously.

"It appears we did." Giles confirmed.

Xander and Buffy walked down the Sunnydale main street determined to make it Tuesday. They walked inside the magic shop just in time for Buffy to stop Spike from killing an innocent shopkeeper.

"What was that for?" Spike asked, annoyance painted on his face.

"You can't just kill innocent people Spike!" Xander announced.

"I'm a Vampire, it's like - what we do." Spike responded and made to leave but was thwarted by Buffy and Xander each grabbing one of his arms.

"Spike, _why_ were you about to kill that poor man?" Buffy asked as rationally as possible.

"I asked him why the day was repeating and he wouldn't tell me!" Spike let out. Buffy rolled her eyes at the Vampire. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. ' _Maybe someone was supposed to die'_ she thought and without hesitating staked Spike. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before opening them, hoping for some indication that this is what needed to happen.

"Where's Spike?" Xander asked. Buffy merely pointed to the pile of dust on the floor. "Huh."

"Indeed." Buffy replied, shrugging. "He's just so…irritating and…a Vampire and…I couldn't help it. And who knows? Maybe this is what was supposed to happen!"

Xander thought for a moment, "Eh, probably not."

That night Buffy warned Xander not to disturb her before noon the next day for any reason at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Day 12**

 _Beep Beep_. Buffy slammed her hand against the clock a little too hard and winced as it broke through her night stand. "Oops." She mumbled before falling back to sleep having forgotten to write her mother a note.

Not even five minutes later Buffy was awoken by a commotion in her house. She did her best to ignore the activity, until someone burst through the door.

"Go away," Buffy mumbled to the intruder.

"Buffy, please, you've gotta wake up something's going on." Xander pleaded with his friend, shaking her shoulders in an attempt to wake her up.

"Xander, I recall asking, neh, demanding not to be disturbed until after noon today. That alarm clock already tried and look what happened to it." Buffy pointed to the alarm clock, now nearly broken in half sunk in to the previously sturdy night stand. Xander audibly gulped.

"Trust me Buff, I would have let you sleep but…this is huge!" Xander said excitedly, at this point physically dragging Buffy out of bed. Buffy, nearly out the door, conceded defeat and followed her friend downstairs, where she saw her mother staring, hand over her mouth, at some army dude on the television. It took a moment for Buffy to realize Xander was pointing at the ribbon cycling across the screen: _The Air Force Claims They Have a Device That Takes Them to Other Worlds…Aliens?_

Buffy rolled her eyes "seriously Xander? You woke me up for this?" And turned to make her way upstairs when Xander stopped her and turned her back to the television right in time to see some magic weapon make a teddy bear disappear. Buffy frowned, "well, that isn't very nice!" Reasonably intrigued, Buffy remained downstairs and watched the news.

An alien was suddenly on the screen, showing the camera something really gross on his stomach. "I did not need to see that." Buffy mumbled to the agreement of her mother and Xander. The phone in the Summers' house was ringing in the backdrop, Joyce made a motion a couple of times to get up and get it but then another 'revelation' would occur and she would once again find herself planted in the couch.

"Woah. Woah. WOAH." Buffy began, "Oh no." She continued, vaguely aware of the looks of confusion coloring her mother and Xander's face.

"What is it Buff?" Xander asked.

"Did this happen any of the past 10 days?" Buffy asked.

"No, and it's day 12 by the way." Xander responded.

"Exactly." Buffy stated, looking quite pleased with herself. She gave Xander a moment to realize what she had.

"Oh no! Seriously? Aliens?" Xander asked. "How could this possibly get any more ridiculous?" In response, a loud and persistent knocking startled them.

Joyce, beginning to recover from the shock of their new reality, mumbled "Sometimes I have no idea what you kids are talking about." As she answered the door to Spike, smoking slightly from under his blanket.

"Took you long enough," Spike glared. Joyce's feeling of hurt quickly transformed into confusion as Spike walked determinedly into her living room.

"Hey Spike." Xander stated, barely looking up. Buffy merely nodded at him.

"Is that all? You people STAKE me, leave me for dust, and…" Spike began, but noticed no one seemed to care. "What are you people watching anyways? Is Passions on?"

"Aliens are real." Buffy stated pointing at the TV.

"Seriously?" Spike asked, quieting down to watch the TV for a second.

"Can I get you anything to drink Spike? Some coffee maybe?" Joyce asked.

"A cup of coffee would be great – thanks!" Spike responded with utmost courtesy. "So do you think these guys are responsible for the time loop?" He turned to Buffy and Xander and asked.

"What time loop?" Joyce asked, handing Spike his mug of hot coffee.

"Oh could I get some sugar and just a touch of cream?" Spike pleaded with a warm smile. Joyce smiled back and took the mug back into the kitchen.

"That's what we are trying to figure out now. I guess it was a bit conceited of us to assume the time loop had to do with us…" Xander admitted.

"Ha! That's exactly what I suggested a few days ago and you were all 'Oh no Buffy don't be an idiot blah blah blah' and oh what do you know I was right!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Yeah yeah yeah." Xander dismissed, "So anyways, if aliens or whatever are responsible for the time loop, then A – why are we stuck in the time loop and B – what do we do about it?"

"No idea." Buffy responded, slumping back in her seat.

Spike looked around, "well, it's been fun guys, but I've got a magic shop keeper to kill and a kidnapping to plan so I'll see you guys around." He stood up and turned to leave.

"Seriously Spike? NO." Buffy stated, shaking her head. "You will go into the basement, and stay there until this damn day is over!" Buffy was exhausted - physically, mentally, even a touch emotionally. After ensuring that Spike was properly imprisoned in the basement, Buffy and Xander realized it was lunch time and headed into school.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's so…chaotic," Xander remarked as he and Buffy walked through the halls. The teachers seemed too consumed in the news to even attempt to control their students' monkey like behavior, "but a part of me thought that people would just ignore it."

"I know what you mean. Evidence of Vampires has been staring these people in the face for years yet they chose to ignore it. I assumed they would have just called this aliens business a big prank…or something." Buffy stated thoughtfully. "Duck!" Buffy yelled as a large tomato came heading their way.

"That was close," Xander remarked as the pair stepped into the library. Unsurprisingly, Giles, Willow, Cordelia, and Oz were already assembled.

"Where have you guys been?" Willow asked with a look of concern.

"I hate this part," Xander mumbled under his breath, "We're in a time loop – Buffy was trying to sleep in, then there were aliens, and then Spike came over and we tied him up, so what do you guys think of the aliens?" Even Buffy was confused by the explanation.

"Spike's in town?" Giles asked seriously.

"Yes." Buffy answered. She closed her eyes for a moment, preparing to explain. "It's very…complicated…we…are…in…a…time loop…" Buffy told the group in a painfully slow manner.

"Buffy, explaining everything slower isn't going to make what you're saying make sense." Willow interrupted.

"Okay then. We've been in a time loop for 12 days. Only Xander, Spike and I remember. Before you interrupt," Buffy looked over at Giles who looked as though he was ready to say something, "we don't know exactly what caused it. We know it wasn't Willow, and it may have to do with planetary alignment mystical fluctuation stuff. Originally, only Xander and I remembered and then something happened a few days ago and Spike started remembering. However, this alien stuff? This has _never_ happened until now. So we think this has something to do with it. Theories?"

The group looked at Buffy, their facial expressions ranging from distress to apathy. Giles was the first to respond, "Are we sure this is not Spike's fault?"

"Maybe, but we're pretty sure it's not." Xander responded, "Buffy staked him yesterday and it did nothing."

"You killed Spike?!" Willow asked, her jaw slightly open.

"Yeah, but then the day repeated, and rather than being dust he was merely pissed off." Buffy responded shaking her head. "So, anyone else have any ideas?"

"Oh! I know…I can ha-," Willow paused mid sentence and looked at Giles, "use the computer to find out more about the aliens." She finished with an awkward wink at Buffy and Xander.

"Yes! That's the kind of thinking we need people!" Xander smiled, "So, let's get to work!"

Alas, Willow was unable to find more than basic contact information. "Sorry guys," a crestfallen Willow began, "but it seems like they keep their data on an internal server so any confidential information is completely inaccessible…unless we were to go to Norad?" Willow gave a quizzical look.

Buffy shook her head, "by the time we got there it would be tomorrow which means it would be today and we won't have actually gone anywhere. There's no point." Buffy watched as the sun set, the excitement of the day beginning to wane as she realized that they were no closer to solving the time loop.

"Buffy – this Aliens nonsense appears to have made the natives restless. It would be wise for you to start patrol now." Giles interrupted her reverie.

"Let's go." Buffy sighed, grabbing a crossbow and a stake on her way out the door.

 **Day 45 (aka Day 13)**

Colonel O'Neill stared at his bowl of cereal. Again.

"What do you think?" Daniel asked him, just as he did every day. O'Neill gave Daniel a blank expression before getting up from his seat and heading out to find Teal'c. He gave a small smile as he recalled outing the Stargate program the day before. Of course, since the day restarted, no one would remember.

"Mmm mmm bum bad-a bum baaaaa bum ba bum-" O'Neill's humming was interrupted by an announcement over the speakers: ' _O'Neill, please report to General Hammond's office at once.'_ O'Neill's eye brows perked up at the unexpected announcement and quickly turned around and headed for his Commanding Officer's office.

"O'Neill." Teal'c stated shortly, falling into stride next to him, "Why have you been called into Hammond's office? Is this not unusual for this day?" The alien asked monotonously.

"Indeed." O'Neill responded as he entered the office, leaving Teal'c outside to ponder the odd turn of events. "Sir, you rang?"

"Have a seat." General Hammond said, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"What's on your mind, sir?" O'Neill asked.

"I have had the most…curious phone call Colonel," Hammond began, now rubbing his fore finger and thumb on his chin. "A young man from California, claims to know all about the Stargate. He has provided a considerable amount of detailed information we have been able to corroborate."

"Interesting." O'Neill stated, in fact looking quite interested.

"It is. Perhaps the most interesting thing is he said you told him. He said, and I quote ' _O'Neill told everyone about it yesterday. Just ask him – he'll get it_ '. So Colonel O'Neill, my records show that you were on base all day yesterday. So would you mind explaining this to me?"

"Well sir," O'Neill began feeling uncomfortable in his seat, nervous, "we are in a time loop."

"I'm sorry, a what?" Hammond asked incredulously.

"A time loop, TEAL'C," O'Neill shouted. Teal'c immediately entered the room. "Basically, the same day keeps repeating over and over and over again. And the only people who remember it are Teal'c and I. We think it has something to do with that damn planet we're supposed to go to this afternoon. We tried to fix it a few times but – it got really exhausting so we decided to take a break."

"This is truly a fascinating story, however what does this have to do with a 17 year old boy obtaining classified information?" Hammond asked impatiently.

"I was getting to that! Well basically yesterday, Carter was talking about how important it is to keep the Stargate a secret and how the world couldn't handle it, etc. And of course Daniel was saying 'give people a chance they may surprise you' so in order to get them to stop arguing I just kind of…disclosed the Stargate to the world."

"O'Neill, you did not leave this base yesterday and I am certain we would know if you did in fact disclose the Stargate to the general population. Maybe I should call Dr. Frasier…" Hammond trailed off.

"No, please General! That's completely uncalled for. Look, when I say 'yesterday' I mean the last today. For Teal'c and I, it's been like, what 35 Mondays?"

"43." Teal'c corrected.

"Sorry, 43. So I may have disclosed the existence of the Stargate but no one else would know because the day repeated itself, and only Teal'c and I will remember." O'Neill explained.

"O'Neill – if someone did call this morning, and said that you told them and the world at large that the Stargate program does exist, then perhaps this person is also aware of the timeloop." Teal'c suggested.

General Hammond, rubbing his temples, looked suspiciously from O'Neill to Teal'c. "Ordinarily, I would assume this was an elaborate joke. However, since you seem in earnest Teal'c I will take this seriously. However, I would still like Dr. Frasier to take a look at the both of you, then you can call this 'Alexander Harris' back and get to the bottom of this!"

"How about we skip seeing the doc? I mean, what could her tests tell us really?" O'Neill pleaded.

"Go away!" Buffy told the obnoxious knocking that appeared to be coming from the other side of the room.

"Buff, c'mon, it's 11 am, open up! I'm expecting a call back from those Air Force guys any minute!" Xander shouted.

"Fine!" Buffy responded, hastily throwing her robe on. She thought for a moment how convenient it was that she had worn this same robe for 13 days and every day it was clean. Within a couple of minutes Buffy was out of her bedroom door looking expectantly at Xander. "So. What's up?" She asked.

Trying to ignore Buffy's massive case of bed head, Xander began, "Well, you know how yesterday all Willow was able to dig up was a phone number for the SGC?" Buffy nodded in understanding, "Well, I took the effort of memorizing that number and this morning I thought 'Hey – this O'Neill guy was probably acting out of character and…well…maybe I should try and talk to him!' and before I thought of the implications of revealing I knew a number of government secrets, I called and demanded to speak with him."

"So what did he say?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, I talked to some sergeant…they were pretty nice and said they would get back to me around noon though! Really friendly guy…" Xander thought aloud.

"Buffy!" Her mother's voice startled the blonde from her reverie.

"Sup Mom?" Buffy asked non-chalantly.

"There's a Colonel Jack O'Neill on the phone for Xander." Joyce told Buffy, her face expressing equal parts disapproval and concern.

"Thanks Mrs. S!" Xander said, flashing an innocent smile before taking the phone, failing to explain why they would be calling Xander back at Buffy's house.

"This is Xander." He stated with as much confidence as he could summon. Buffy picked up the handset in the other room, carefully covering the speaker with her right hand and giving Xander a supportive thumbs up with her left.

 _"Mr. Harris? This is Colonel O'Neill…you left a message for me."_

"Right-O I did! Just calling to see what's going on with your Stargate," Xander winked awkwardly considering O'Neill couldn't actually see him, "maybe you know something about the day repeating itself?" Xander finished uncomfortably. Buffy looked unimpressed.

 _"You have my attention."_

"Uh," Xander fumbled a moment.

"Hi!" Buffy started into the phone, ignoring hurt looks from Xander. "My name is Buffy! Xander and I have been stuck in a time loop for oh, 13 days now?" She looked to Xander for confirmation, "Yes, 13 days. We thought it was a hell mouthy thing but then you went on TV yesterday and announced the whole Stargate thing and we thought Hey! Maybe that has something to do with it!"

Both Xander and Buffy stared at one another, waiting for an answer.

 _"13 days?"_

"Yeah. 13 days. Sucks right?" Xander exclaimed.

 _"Try 40 days."_ Jack mumbled.

"40 Days? That sucks. And do you find yourself waking up every morning feeling utterly exhausted? Because that happens to me. Every day." Buffy vented.

 _"No. I restart every morning scooping these awful fruit loops with Daniel going 'What do you think' and you know? I really don't care!"_

"That sucks!" Said Xander.

"Don't listen to him," Buffy started, "he restarts the day after a full night sleep. It's rude."

"So anyways," Xander forcefully changed the subject, "Do you all know how this time loop thing started in the first place?"

 _"Well, we think it has something to do with this planet we went on. This Malakai guy did this whole weird thing and then there were flashes and poof! Stuck in a time loop."_ Jack explained.

"Ah, the classic 'bad-guy-completes-ritual' incident. Never a fun time for the kids." Xander added. "So, are all of you Stargate people stuck in a timeloop?"

 _"Na, just Teal'c and I."_

"So you said before," Buffy interrupted, "that you have been in the time loop for 40 days, whereas we have only been in it for maybe 13. So what happened 13 days ago?"

 _"Nothing that I can remember. TEAL'C!"_ Jack shouted, _"Get on the phone! Line 2!"_

 _"This is Teal'c."_ He stated stoically.

 _"Hey Teal'c, buddy, we've got Xander and Buffy on the line. They started experiencing the time loop about 13 days ago. Anything you remember happening then that may have brought them in?"_

"Oh my gosh! You're an alien right? You've got that – thing in your stomach right?" Xander began, the excitement never leaving his voice.

 _"Indeed. I am an alien. As to O'Neill's question, nothing distinctly unusual happened. Although - I do recall having lunch with a rather attractive female marine around that time. I have been unable to locate her since."_ Teal'c told them sadly.

"Well that's kind of odd. I mean, the day is repeating so you should be able to find her. And even if you were really creepy, not saying that you are really creepy or anything just saying, you know, she wouldn't remember since hello! The day repeated." Xander rambled on.

 _"Indeed."_

"Well-" Xander was about to speak when the sound of the doorbell echoed throughout the home.

"I'll get it!" Buffy shouted racing to the door, a little disappointed to find Giles on the other side, looking exacerbated as usual.

"Buffy! Are you alright? I asked Cordelia to fetch you at school but she said that you were not in class." Giles began, "There is something urgent I must speak to you about, the planets have aligned in the most unusual-"

"Yeah yeah yeah I get it mystical convergence wonky stuff blah blah-"

"Buffy please, take this seriously! I am uncertain if there will be any consequences but-"

"I should be extra vigilant?" Buffy suggested.

"Yes."

"Cool. Well, just an FYI, we are stuck in a time loop. The day just keeps repeating over and over and – wait a minute! Why did you come to my house? I've taken the day off of school before but you've never come here…" Buffy considered.

"Buffy, please slow down. You are not making sense!" Giles took of his glasses and began diligently cleaning them. In the background the pair heard Xander questioning a girl's attractiveness and apparently giving dating advice.

"Wait, you told her that you wished for some help with this time loop thing?" Xander said into the phone.

"Did you say 'Wish'?" Giles asked, his head turning so fast Buffy was concerned he would get whiplash.

"Hold on Teal'c." Xander removed the phone from his head and placed the speaker in his hand. "Hey Giles, this is kind of a long distance call, do you think this could wait?"

"Sorry, sorry. Just a reflex. Never make a wish…" Giles mumbled, and continued to clean his glasses. Xander shrugged his shoulders and brought the phone back to his ear.

"Woah woah." Buffy said, her hands rubbing her temples. "An idea – thought – thing." At this point, Xander was back to gossiping with Teal'c over his mystery girl and Giles was sitting on the couch, waiting patiently for his students to explain the situation. "And I lost it." Buffy dropped her arms and collapsed on the couch next to her watcher.

While Xander seemed to be uplifted by the idea that across the country two guys were _also_ suffering Buffy was kind of depressed. Without further questioning why Giles was there, Buffy (still having yet to brush her hair) headed out with no particular destination in mind.

"Why me?" she asked herself despondent, completely oblivious to the many Sunnydale gawkers who were completely scandalized by her state of dress.

She walked all the way to the small Sunnydale shopping district and wished she had more money so she could buy stuff. She moped around full of self-pity for a few minutes until she found herself completely entranced by a designer handbag.

"You're so beautiful," Buffy told the handbag, still completely unconcerned that she appeared crazy. She was about to walk away when a sudden realization hit her that whatever she did that day _wouldn't actually matter_.

What happened next was a montage style shopping spree. She knew she had a $10,000 limit on her mom's emergency credit card and was testing to see if it would be possible to hit the limit before nightfall. By her best guess (which was really not based on anything more than a gut feeling) she had about $500 left and decided to treat herself and all of her friends to a delicious steak dinner at "Sunnydale Steaks."

She was sitting in the middle of the corner booth, her bags full of clothes, shoes, bags, more shoes and a sword surrounding her when the rest of the Scooby Gang walked in, completely taken aback.

"Er, Buffy," Willow started, her eyes wide.

"What?" She asked, noticing everyone but Xander seemed to think she had gone absolutely crazy, "OH! Yeah – I look like crap, right? Well – we're in a time loop."

Before everyone could mobilize and enact a likely already developed "what to do when Buffy goes crazy?" plan, Xander pepped in, "It's true! It was started by aliens." He stated knowingly.

Of course, this actually didn't help at all considering only Xander, Buffy and Spike knew aliens definitely existed. "OK," Buffy restarted, "let's recap…" After Buffy (with Xander's occasional help) gave a long and drawn out explanation of the last 13 days, the gang reluctantly agreed it seemed possible and did explain her appearance and the horrific amount of shopping. Giles also appreciated someone _finally_ explaining what was going on when he had stopped by Buffy's house earlier that day.

"That reminds me," Buffy turned to Giles with a skeptical look, "why did you come to my house? There have been multiple iterations of today where I didn't come to school but you have never actually come to check on me before."

"Yes – well. I learned of the mystical convergence and had just asked Cordelia to pass you a note to come see me when I received a call from the owner of the magic shop that Spike was back in town." Giles explained.

Buffy tilted her head in confusion. "Didn't I lock him in the basement?"

"No – that was yesterday." Xander confirmed. Buffy looked up and appeared to do some high level math in head before nodding in agreement. "Say, where has our favorite Vampire been all day?"

"Well, it's been a long 13 days. I want to enjoy a nice, expensive steak dinner with my friends and then we can either deal with Spike like mature adults or do the smart thing and procrastinate until tomorrow." Buffy proclaimed and called the waitress over.

After a delicious dinner (which made Buffy realize she could eat anything she wanted and not gain weight!) Buffy was back to moping given that the stores were closed and even if they weren't she had likely reached her credit card's limit.

"Buffy? Are you ok?" She whipped around and noticed Angel heading towards her with a bag of blood.

"Yeah, I guess." She pouted kicking some dirt around.

Angel was super concerned; he had those lines along his eyes and everything. "You want to talk about it?"

Buffy, still melancholy, was about to give some emo response like "what's the point?" when she once again realized anything she did _wouldn't matter_.

She gave Angel a sly, hungry look and agreed to walk with him to his house.


	4. Chapter 4

**Day 14**

While Buffy was tired, an overwhelming feeling of guilt enabled her to wake up without pressing snooze once. Feeling sick of being exhausted and depressed, Buffy went through the actions of getting dressed, for the first time grateful she had done all of her laundry that Sunday.

At school nobody was acting particular in anyway. She managed to get to Trig a minute before the bell rang, gave Willow an expression that said 'I don't feel like listening to Witch stuff' and then did her best to _actually_ pay attention in class. Once class ended, Buffy noticed Xander was conspicuously absent.

"Where's Xander?" She asked Willow, who merely shrugged apparently having no idea.

Suddenly, Buffy became concerned. She called his house to discover he had indeed left "for school" that morning, checked the library, the cafeteria and was about to go to the Magic Store when a feeling in the pit of her stomach made her sick with worry.

"Oh no." She said out loud, adding to Willow's still increasing level of confusion. Without concern for Principal Snyder who threatened to expel her if she took one more step off of school grounds, Buffy began to sprint, not realizing Willow was behind her until she started coughing. "What are you doing here?"

"Er – well, you've been acting strange all morning and you seemed concerned for Xander so I thought you might need help?" Willow asked though it wasn't really a question.

Buffy shrugged in acceptance and continued on – worried sick for her friend and questioning her own sanity to some extent.

"Where are we going?" Willow finally caught up to Buffy and stopped her, breathing heavily.

"The Mansion." Buffy didn't explain and the pair conveniently turned the corner leading to the deserted place. Buffy led a jog up the entryway and busted in with a mission. "Xander? Angel?" She yelled and then immediately froze when she saw the two sitting down and – talking. "What's going on guys?"

"Xander just came over and asked a few question," Angel shrugged, super confused.

Buffy walked up to Angel, held his hands and looked deep into his eyes, "Are you ok?" she asked. Angel gave a quick nod and Buffy was like, 75% sure he was still Angel.

"NO! You didn't!" Xander exclaimed, catching on surprisingly quickly after 13 days of dealing with Buffy.

"Er." Buffy decided to lie, "No."

"Then why did the idea of Angel and I talking freak you out? Why are you examining Angel like you found out he had some sort of life threatening illness?" Xander continued to interrogate her.

"I mean, I was just concerned you didn't come to school, you know? And I just thought – you know, that you and Angel don't really get along, what if someone had somehow done something to give Angel a moment of happiness and he kidnapped you? That's totally a thing that could have happened." Buffy explained, only now realizing that Angel and Willow were staring at the exchange open mouthed, "What? It's a totally realistic possibility. Plus I mean we had pancakes in the caf for breakfast – Xander _never_ misses pancakes." This seemed to make a little more sense to Willow. "Wait – Xander, why are you here?"

"Well, after you mentioned Angel a few days ago I thought it would be a good idea to go over the time loop thing with him." Xander explained.

"Oh." Buffy realized this actually made a lot of sense. "Yeah that's a good idea." Angel looked as though some comprehension was sinking in.

"Are you guys _actually_ stuck in a time loop?" Angel asked.

Buffy and Xander both confirmed this and gave exasperated sighs to show how lame the whole thing had been.

"OK – so then what does Xander think-" Angel started to ask and then paused when he realized he answered his own question. "Oh – no. We didn't?" He asked Buffy.

Now Buffy had the decency to look guilty and mumbled something along the lines of "It seemed like a good idea at the time." The four stood there awkwardly – after a few seconds Willow realized she needed to get back to school for some computer thing and left.

"So er – Angel," Buffy really didn't want to have a talk that will never have happened about an evening of passion that _didn't_ happen. "Do you know anything about timeloops?"

"Not really – I've maybe heard one or two things before but nothing concrete just an occasional demon bragging that he relived a day," Angel shrugged.

Buffy, though not surprised, was a little bummed, "Well – it was worth a shot. I guess we're just going to have to wait for those Stargate guys to solve this?" She asked Xander, who shrugged in a newfound sense of apathy.

"Wait – did you say Stargate?" Angel asked suddenly.

"Yeah – S-T-A-R-G-A-T-E." Buffy spelled out since Angel seemed real confused.

Xander laughed at this though Angel just rolled his eyes, "Yes, I know how to spell it – but how do you know about the Stargate?

Buffy gave a great sigh before starting the _long_ explanation of the first 14 days.

"Wait – what do you know about the Stargate?" Xander asked Angel curiously.

Angel beckoned the pair to take a seat as he skimmed his bookshelf until he found the book he was looking for and began, "You may not know this but during World War 2, I spent some time working for the US Government," he paused, giving both Buffy and Xander an opportunity to absorb the shock of this revelation, "It was – against my will, as you can imagine given how I behaved at that time," since neither Buffy nor Xander put that much time and effort into understanding Angel's past, this comment really didn't affect them.

"The point is, at some point I was brought to an underground facility – I don't know where it was but there was a large device people called 'The Stargate'. They were trying to get it to work and for some reason thought I could shed some insight. I couldn't so eventually they sent me overseas to rescue a submarine." Angel finished non-sequitorially. "About 5 years after the war ended, I came across this book," he pointed to the aforementioned item.

Buffy squinted at the book, which like any good book was old, smelly, written in a different language and likely 'priceless' begging the question (for another time) of how Angel could have afforded it when at the time he had a diet of rats. "While I couldn't read the language, I recognized a number of the symbols from the Stargate and kept it – not sure why but it seemed important at the time…" Angel finished thoughtfully.

Both Buffy and Xander confirmed that they could not read the book and decided it was time to call Jack and Teal'c. This time, when Xander called the Norad switchboard he was immediately transferred to Jack.

"Hey Xander!" Jack sounded legitimately excited which was kind of depressing.

"Hey Jack – we just came across some old book which according to our friend has symbols that are on the Stargate." Xander explained.

"Uh." Jack was unsure what to comment on first. "How does your friend know they are on the Stargate?"

"Oh. That." Xander gave Buffy a 'help me' look. Since they were at Angel's and Angel had only one phone hooked up (which was weird in and of itself), Buffy wasn't able to listen in on the conversation and thus was of no help. "This guy's like SUPER old. Buffy and I were chillin' with him cause timeloop we're bored! And told him about it because you know – no ramifications, tomorrow will be today, etc. etc. And he was all 'Oh Wow! I once worked on a Stargate! I'm super old!'" Xander explained, sounding more like some stereotypical surfer than anything else.

Buffy and Angel stared at him incredulously, while Xander gave a "what did you want me to say?!" look.

"Ok." Jack didn't sound like he believed him but seemed to accept this for now. "Can you all take some pictures of the book and email them to me?" He asked, and then proceeded to provide Xander with an email address.

Xander and Buffy left with the book, explaining to Angel that it didn't matter if they kept the book in good condition since tomorrow would be Monday again and thus the book would revert back to its current old and musty state regardless of whatever mayhem occurred. They got back to school (ignoring Principal Snyder's threats of suspension/expulsion/imprisonment), physically dragged Willow out of her AP Chemistry class and got to the computer lab to awkwardly find a class in progress.

"Er." Buffy started as a group of Freshman stared open jawed at the group. "We're just going to work back here." She pointed to the empty work station in the back. The teacher seemed to consider taking some sort of action for a moment but chose not to out of sheer laziness.

"So Willow," Buffy started, talking to Willow for the first time since basically kidnapping her, "we need you to scan/photograph some pages of this book – quickly and then send them to this email address." She stated while grabbing the sticky note out of Xander's hand he had written Jack's email address on.

"Ok…" Willow responded, looking at her 2 best friends with the utmost confusion, but at the same time really excited they came to her with this. So Willow worked on the task, with the occasional interjection by Buffy and Xander to scan a particular page for some arbitrary reason. "Alright – and sent!"

"Alright – well we told Jack we would be at Buffy's so that's where he's going to call if he has any questions. See ya Willow!" Xander saluted.

"Wait – but guys, we still have 2 more classes and lunch."

Xander paused at the word lunch and looked at Buffy thoughtfully before responding, "Willow – some things are more important than lunch."

Willow was dumbfounded while Xander and Buffy continued to exit the school without a care in the world.

"Er – Xander, you know my mom will make us lunch right?" Buffy confirmed.

"Oh thank God." Xander let out a great exhale.

 **Day 15**

When Buffy _finally_ woke up she was bummed to realize that the random pages they chose from the book they arbitrarily found at Angel's apparently did not hold the key to their current predicament. She made it to school just in time for lunch and was pleasantly surprised when she noticed pizza delivery and the entire Scooby gang in the library.

"What's up guys?" she asked with a piece of pepperoni shoved in her face. Xander was unfazed by the lack of decorum while the others looked rather dumbfounded.

"Uh, well," Giles began, blinking awkwardly and routinously wiping his glasses, "Xander has finished telling us quite the elaborate tale."

"Timeloops and aliens?" Buffy questioned. They all nodded, some giving odd patronizing looks to Xander. "Well, it's totally true." She confirmed with a heavy sigh. "Have we heard anything from Jack and Teal'c yet?"

"Not a word since we sent him those picture – I even worked with Willow this morning to redo all the work after lifting the book from Angel!" Xander confirmed – obviously very worked up about the whole situation.

Buffy, who understood the torment of reliving the most boring day ever over and over again, put her hand on Xander's shoulder in sympathy.

"So you both are crazy?" Cordelia inquired incredulously while carefully pulling the cheese off of her pizza. Buffy looked longingly at the cheese, completely ignoring the other girls' statement.

"Babe – we're _not_ crazy." Xander plead while the library phone rang in the background.

"Xander? The phone is for you." Giles stated, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What's up Giles?" Buffy asked.

"It's just – that was someone claiming to be a Colonel Jack O'Neill," he continued after a dramatic pause, "perhaps you two aren't crazy." Giles mumbled incoherently to himself for a few moments until Xander returned.

"Hey guys – we need your help!" Xander exclaimed, now super jazzed, "Willow – the colonel is about to email you a symbol – it means something super boring but once you receive it, I need you and Oz to sift through every page of the book looking for it. Anytime you see it, scan the page and send it to them." Willow was pumped and began hysterically refreshing her email.

"Giles," Xander startled the Watcher out of some sort of breakdown, "we need you to get in touch with Watchers everywhere and figure out if anyone else is experiencing the timeloop – while we feel about 65% sure these Stargate guys are at fault it's still possible other people could be affected." Giles nodded and shuffled to his office.

"Cordelia-" Xander looked at his expectant girlfriend, realizing he couldn't think of anymore tasks but not wanting to offend her, "Can you help Willow and Oz? They look like they could use a third set of hands." They didn't really.

As the non-looping scoobies blindly followed Xander's instruction, Buffy and Xander regrouped, "So what did Jack have to say?" Buffy asked quietly.

"Well, apparently they had a massive breakthrough with our random page selection yesterday – I guess this book is written in an old language called – wait for it – _Ancient_ and they think this book will help them translate something or another that's been keeping them from ending this god forsaken timeloop." Xander managed to finish without taking a full breath.

"Cool!" Buffy smiled, genuinely happy that they were making progress. The gang worked like this for another few hours. Buffy and Xander managed to convince the others there was no point in going to class and the pair took to "supervising" and "brainstorming" along with the ever important task of ordering Chinese food once the pizza ran out.

"I think we got it all!" Willow announced with a feeling of relief.

"Good work Willow!" Xander smiled, though he tried not to do it to handsomely to ensure Willow didn't get any _ideas_.

"Have you guys seen Giles?" Buffy asked, suddenly aware the watcher had not been seen since entering his office hours before. The group shrugged, not really having noticed and Buffy proceeded to find Giles past out in his chair, apparently having made no progress in his relatively unimportant task. "Eh." Buffy said, failing to really come up with any significant emotion at all.

To thank her friends for all of their hard work, Buffy decided it would be a fun time to go to the Bronze. Of course, upon getting there, the gang noticed it was Monday and thus the only inhabitants were townies. Nonetheless, they had a great time until Spike came by.

"Ugh." Buffy stated while Xander rolled his eyes. Willow shrieked, Oz bravely stepped in front of her and Cordelia ran away. "What are you doing here Spike?" Buffy asked.

"I've been looking for the witch." Spike asked, attempting to look threatening. He then backed off, "though I was hoping to find her alone…"

"What are you talking about Spike? Didn't you give up on that? We're in a time loop!" Buffy was truly exasperated.

"What?" Spike asked, his eyes expressing how genuinely confused he was, "Whatever – this town sucks anyways! I don't know why I came back."

"Huh." Xander was the first to speak. Cordelia ran up to them and hugged Xander as if he had been in some real legitimate danger.

"So – he's out of the timeloop?" Buffy suggested.

"That, or he's a great actor." Xander suggested, before shaking his head confirming that he did not agree with that assessment at all.

"We'll let Jack know tomorrow." Buffy shrugged.


	5. Chapter 5

**Day 20**

Beep Beep Beep. "AHHHHHH!" Buffy screamed dramatically at her alarm clock before slaying it. She was about to go back to sleep when the rather out of place sound of a helicopter caught her attention.

The past 4 days had been slow. The Scooby gang found themselves scanning/sending random pages of that book every day. The non loopers seemed to find it exciting but Buffy was seriously sick of it. She had been planning to binge on shopping and food on day 20, after an excessive amount of sleep of course.

But alas the ever growing sound of the helicopter convinced her she really should get out of bed. Grumbling 'stupid army base', Buffy slipped on her bunny shoes and robe and shuffled downstairs to find her mom's face masked in concern as she stared at something in the backyard.

It wasn't difficult for Buffy to figure out what was going on as she looked in the backyard and saw 4 soldier people getting out of the helicopter. She had a moment where she was worried before it dawned on her who they are and she started jumping in excitement and ran out to great them.

"Jack! Teal'c!" She yelled and greeted them as if they were old friends. Jack and Teal'c were similarly excited. "How did you find us and get here so early?"

"The loop begins daily at about 3am – we merely acted quickly, procured a jet and then this helicopter, thus ensuring our early arrival." Teal'c drawled. The other 2 whose names Buffy really couldn't remember looked on in a sort of confused acceptance.

"So what brings you to my humble abode? Oh – where are my manners! Do you guys want anything to eat? Coffee?" Buffy managed, leading the team into her home.

"Yesterday our geek," Jack pointed at the one with the glasses who rolled his eyes, "mentioned he would be able to get much further in his research if he actually saw the book so we figured we would come see-"

"Buffy! What's going on?" Her mom asked very seriously.

"Mom, these are Jack and Teal'c and…" she squinted at them willing their names to pop into her head (they didn't).

"I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson and this is Major Sam Carter." Daniel smiled and Joyce for some reason felt much better about the whole thing.

"We're stuck in a time loop – these guys," Buffy pointed specifically at Jack and Teal'c, "are stuck in it too so we're going to go to Angel's now." Buffy finished without explaining. Joyce sort of nodded, overwhelmed by the morning activities. "You guys ready to go?" She turned to SG-1.

"Er – are you going to get dressed?" Jack asked awkwardly.

Buffy looked at her outfit and contemplated a moment, "Eh." She shrugged and led the group out the door. As they walked to Angel's, Jack took a moment to explain what Daniel and Sam did. At one point, Daniel interrupted to express just how excited he was to see the book assuming this wasn't an elaborate hoax.

"So where are we going?" Jack asked Buffy in a serious tone she had yet to encounter.

"What a good question! Well – we're seeing our friend Angel. He's a collector of antiquities – you know? Old books, old swords, old random chains hanging from the ceiling…" Buffy sort of went on.

"But I thought you found the book when you talked to 'some old guy'", Jack finished with air quotes. "And how does this 'Angel'" more air quotes, "know about the Stargate?"

"Haha." Buffy laughed nervously – hoping maybe they would forget the utter inconsistencies of the matter. Jack and Sam both looked very serious; Daniel looked at her with sympathy, and Teal'c hadn't adjusted his facials expression in any discernible way. "Why don't we just, worry about that tomorrow?" She pleaded.

With the mention of tomorrow, Jack once again remembered he was stuck a freakin' Time Loop and groaned in exasperation. "Yeah – we'll see." He shrugged. Buffy sighed in relief and led the skeptical group to the mansion. She was about to go inside when she saw something smoking on the ground to the side.

"Spike?!" Buffy shouted, roughly grabbing the burning vampire.

"Oooo Owww Slayer!" he unceremoniously shouted. Buffy contemplated for a moment what to do before tossing the vampire into the mansion and away from the sunlight.

"You're welcome." Buffy stated smugly as Spike recovered, before looking her way and then backing up in apparent fear. She turned around and suddenly remembered that SG-1 was right behind her, was unaware of the existence of Vampires, and now all had various firearms out. "Huh." She cocked her head to the side and considered her next move.

"Buffy?" She heard Angel's voice from the other room as he entered the main foyer. He spent a moment taking in the rather odd scene of Spike curled up on the ground with Buffy in between him and 4 commando type guys. "Uh…" he started when his back door slammed.

"Angel!" Xander's painfully upbeat voice floated across the (conveniently) acoustically sound house.

"Hey Xander!" Buffy shouted.

"Buffy?! What on earth are you doing-" but cut himself off. "Huh."

"Will SOMEONE explain what is going on?" Jack asked.

Buffy, having perfected the dumb blonde act years ago, thought that was the way to go. "What do you mean?! This is our friend Spike," Buffy paused to flip her hair, "and this is Angel." There was a pause as SG1 waited for someone to say what was going on.

Of course, Spike used this opportunity to try and run away which reflexively caused Buffy to kick him in the face, thus causing his face to transform to the less appealing 'game face'. The whole series of events ruined Buffy's attempts once and for all.

"What is he?" Sam asked, obviously trying to keep her composure. Daniel couldn't help a certain amount of glee, while Jack was busy thinking of the ramification of aliens found on Earth.

"He's a vampire." Xander interjected, not really seeing the big deal since these guys dealt with Aliens. Daniel looked intrigued, Jack looked confused, Sam looked skeptical and Teal'c still had yet to adjust his facial expression. Xander noticed this and silently bet himself he could get the alien to crack a smile before the day inevitably repeated. He looked to Buffy and attempted to communicate this telepathically to her but alas, it was not to be.

"What do you mean by Vampire?" Sam asked. At this point, Angel was starting to get uncomfortable with all the guns, even though they were all pointed at Spike.

"Alright everyone, let's calm down. First of all who are you people and what are you doing here?" Angel decided it was time to take some control over whatever was happening.

"Ok, ok. Angel? You don't remember but we're stuck in a timeloop," Buffy began but paused at Angel's blatant skepticism, "no, really – this day has repeated 20 times for Xander and I and even more for them – well – only those 2." Jack and Xander both nodded thus confirming this.

Buffy continued, "These guys work with the Stargate-

"The Stargate?" Angel interrupted, his eyes wide.

Before he could give another emotional (aka boring) explanation of his time held captive by the US Government. "Yes, yes Angel. Them. The point of all this, is we need your book. We've been borrowing it every day to scan them materials but if David here," Daniel perked up and corrected her, "has access to the book he might be able to work things out faster, thus allowing this day to STOP REPEATING." Buffy ended hysterically.

Angel still had no clue what was going on but nodded before heading to his bookshelf to grab the aforementioned book. SG1 appeared to have many more questions but Buffy had inadvertently reminded them that they were in a time sensitive situation.

Of course, Sam saw a way around this. While it was necessary for Jack and Teal'c to work with Daniel in order to learn what Daniel was learning and ensure any translations weren't being lost in the loop, Sam really had no purpose. So, while Daniel looked over the book trailed by a reluctant Jack and an ever stoic Teal'c, she took the opportunity to talk to Buffy and Xander, the former happened to be using a set of chains (Sam wondered if they had been hanging from the ceiling this whole time) to immobilize the 'Vampire'.

"Why do you say he's a Vampire?" Sam asked.

Xander and Buffy dramatically rolled their eyes and gave a sigh before Buffy spoke up, "Well, there's that delightful demon face you saw, the allergy to sunlight, he drinks blood and he's dead. And you can kill him with a stake – do you want me to show you?" Buffy seemed excited by this. Sam's eyes went wide and shook her head no.

"If he's a Vampire then what are you?" Sam had noticed Buffy's ability to drag the Vampire into the house regardless of his greater size. If she had to guess, she would say Buffy was some kind of hoktaur, which wasn't all that surprising given that she had somehow managed to recall this day over and over.

"Er." Buffy stumbled, debating a number of possibilities, "I'm just a girl."

"I saw you lift him up, kick him across the room, and literally 10 seconds ago chain him to this ceiling. Either Vampires are really light," in spite of her fear, Sam went up to the Vampire and attempted (but failed) to pick him up, "or you are really strong."

"It's just adrenaline, you know? Like how moms can pick up a car if their child is stuck under it or something, yeah?" Buffy tried to argue.

"Even if it were adrenaline, that would only explain the initial bout of strength, not your continued ability to exhibit it." Sam rebutted smoothly.

Buffy looked stumped and turned to Xander for advice who gave her a "just tell her – Sheesh!" sort of look. "I'm the 'Vampire Slayer'", Buffy explained.

"Ok." Carter responded, "what's that?"

"I kill Vampires – I'm real strong and fast. If you see Giles, he'll tell you more. I don't like these conversations in the first place let alone when the day will inevitably repeat itself."

"You know," Xander started, "I've been thinking – all of these days that have repeated – what do they mean? It's like, no one remembers them but us, so did they actually happen? Sure, you kind of lost it and thought it would be a good idea to sleep with Angel, but was that OK because the day repeated so in essence it didn't happen or is the fact that you remember it enough to make it a real fact?"

Buffy gave Xander an odd look, Sam nodded approvingly (not at the 'sleeping with Angel' bit) and chimed in, "If a tree falls in the forest but no one is around to hear it did it make a sound?"

"Yeah – you lost me." Xander shook his head. Luckily, before Sam had the opportunity to explain more, the 3 remaining members came back in the room holding many books. "Er – what's with the books?"

"Daniel here said he wanted to do research on the whole Vampire thing." Jack rolled his eyes.

"Ooookkkk – well don't forget the day will repeat itself tonight and it would be excellent if I woke up one of these days and it was Tuesday." Xander spoke directly to Daniel.

"SO! I'm thinking – Library? Get the gang to help?" Buffy suggested.

"Why don't we work here?" Daniel asked.

"Eh – I mean, Spike's here…" Buffy sort of lingered by way of explanation. "Besides, if we don't make an appearance at school people may get worried…"

"School? Are you in college?" Sam asked, somewhat concerned.

"Close! But no. High School." Buffy lamented. Sam and Daniel's faces expressed how weird it was that they were following some high schoolers around. "Well, let's go guys."

* * *

They arrived at Sunnydale high well before lunch, greatly confusing Buffy who had previously always managed to arrive either in time for Trig or right at Lunch. Thus, her surprise that only Giles and Willow were at the library.

"Giles! Willow! Where is everyone else?" She asked.

"Where have you be-" Willow started to ask before Giles interrupted.

"Buffy – can you keep it down? This is a libra – OH! Hello! Umm – how can I help you?" Giles stammered upon seeing the 4 members of SG-1. Buffy found this hilarious and wished she had thought of something funny to do with the situation.

In fact, she wished this so much she said, " I wish I had-"

"NO Buffy – do NOT wish!" Out of Character Giles clasped his hand over her mouth.

"Hey G-Man – good to see you – are you drunk? What are you doing?" Xander interrupted. Giles roughly cleaned off his glasses, looking warily at SG-1 who had decided to ignore the antics and sat down to work on translating.

"Buffy was about to make a wish!" Giles acted as though this explanation was sufficient.

"Er-" Xander looked at Buffy blankly.

"Do you children ever listen to a thing I say?" Giles huffed, "well, as I've mentioned previously, there are certain demons, known most commonly as vengeance demons, who are known to 'grant' the wishes of a 'wronged' party."

"Uh – Giles – that sounds – AWESOME!", Xander exclaimed.

"It is not 'awesome' Xander, the demon will warp the intention of the wisher in a way that usually causes death and mayhem." Giles explained with an appropriate level of condescension.

"Oh..uh…OH". Xander started snapping his fingers. "Teal'c!" Teal'c immediately stood up from where he had been stoically listening to Daniel and joined Xander.

"When we first spoke on the phone," Xandar started pacing, his hands clasped behind his back in some odd imitation of Sherlock Holmes, "you mentioned some vaguely attractive woman who you could never find again – is that right?"

Teal'c nodded his head, "Indeed."

"Aha!" Xander pronounced, which did nothing more than draw the others attention. "And I vaguely recall something about a wish?"

"That is correct Xander Harris. We were speaking of this timeloop and I wished for help getting out of it." He explained.

"Xander – if I'm following your train of thought correctly," a now thoughtful and fully in control of his faculties Giles began, "you believe this…woman…was in fact a vengeance demon? But why would she cause the time loop?"

"I don't believe she did." Teal' responded, followed by an eyebrow raise to Jack.

"Yeah, I'm still pretty sure it was Malakai – especially since he seems to be repeating the day as well." Jack finished.

"So you all are suggesting," Daniel interrupted, "that for some reason this 'vengeance demon' chose to solicit a wish from Teal'c to create some form of havoc?" Jack, Teal'c and even Xander nodded in agreement, "but the result of this interaction, other than the obvious annoyance, has actually been positive. Angel's book has been critical to our developing a better understanding of Ancient and I believe we're extremely close to fully translating the writing on the podium."

"You're point?" Jack asked impatiently.

"If a vengeance demon's purpose is to cause mayhem and turn wishes against the wisher, why did this demon help us?" Daniel finished with a flail of his arms.

"This is a good point," Giles took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "luckily though there is a way to validate this hypothesis. Assuming that Teal'c did indeed make a wish to a vengeance demon, there will be some sort of magical residue in his spirit which we can tap into in order to summon the demon."

Teal'c nodded his head in acceptance. Jack looked skeptical but accepted the suggestion. Daniel looked fascinated, excited and prepared to ask a million questions. And Sam looked like her head was going to explode, "None of this makes sense!" she exclaimed. "Given the information I've read and learned about Vampires I'm willing to accept them as some sort of parasitic alien race or the victim of some sort of virus. I would even be willing to accept demons as potentially goa'uld or another alien using folklore to gain a footing on earth. But I am NOT willing to accept the idea that we can 'summon'," Carter used air quotes, "a 'demon' using whatever 'spiritual residue' it left on Teal'c!"

"OK – ignoring the majority of what you said, magic and science can exist together." Willow announced to the increasingly irritated major. "If you don't believe it, that's your prerogative but we're going to attempt to summon the demon anyway." Willow crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her nose in the air. Carter looked incredulous but figured given how bizarre the day was so far she might as well just let them do what they wanted – she would keep an eye on them to ensure nothing happened to Teal'c.

Once Giles found the proper spell and discovered they (conveniently) had all of the ingredients necessary to perform the ritual, the group set up in a circle. ("Are we sure we should go along with this sir?" Carter asked an overly eager Jack multiple times.)

The ritual went as you'd expect a ritual to go. Carter watched as some sort of red smoke seemed to ooze from Teal'c's skin. She scanned the room – looking for some sort of smoke machine or other device these strange teenagers and their drunk librarian were using to create a phenomenon. However, before she could pursue this further a teenage girl seemed to pop into existence right next to Teal'c.

Willow threw some sort of mixture on the ground which caused the girl to wrangle as if unable to move. "Who are you to summon me? Why am I here?" The girl asked. Only now that the group had the opportunity to look at her, they noticed her face was, well, demonic.

"What did you do to us?" Xander asked thoughtlessly.

"Yeah." Buffy agreed and followed up by grabbing a sword from seemingly nowhere, "what did you do to Teal'c and why won't this day ever end?"

"Oh! It's you guys!" The girl seemed to relax and her face went from demonic to that of a teenage girl. "I had nothing to do with this." She claimed.

"I indeed recall seeing you in the SGC on a different version of this day." Teal'c remarked with his eyebrow raised.

"They say I have one of those faces, you know." She attempted a light smile. Teal'c continued to look at her menacingly. She looked at where his pouch containing a larval goa'uld sat and sighed, "Ok, OK. I'll tell you what happened but can you release this spell?"

Willow looked at Buffy who nodded her head reluctantly. With another powder the girl seemed to regain use of her limbs and made to sit down at the nearby table.

"So I was here in Sunnydale the first time this day happened. After Cordelia caught Xander and Willow making out," Xander and Willow gave each other panicked looks and sighed in relief when they realized that neither Oz nor Cordelia were there. "I went to see her in the hospital, you know, figuring she was primed to enact some serious vengeance." The demon smirked, "And I was right. She seemed to think all her misery was caused by the slayer." She nodded at Buffy, "so she wished the slayer had never come to Sunnydale. I was in the process of granting my wish when suddenly, it was Monday again." She explained, "And again and again and again. I eventually tracked the phenomena to the Chappai, spied on Teal'c and Jack and figured out what was causing it. I desperately wanted it to stop so I allowed to Teal'c to make a wish."

"I don't understand," Carter began, "ignoring the fact that you claim to be a vengeance demon, if you were trying to help why wouldn't you allow Daniel or me to experience the loop? Why select Buffy and Xander?"

"My goal was to include Daniel Jackson. However, I believe since I had failed to impose vengeance upon Xander Harris he unwittingly was pulled into it as well as Buffy. At first, I did not understand how the two of them could possibly help but eventually realized Angel was connected, albeit loosely to both parties and for whatever reason happened to have a book written in Ancient that would prove useful."

"So you just sort of sat around and waited for the loop to end?" Xander asked incredulously.

"Yup! So can I go now?" The demon responded cheerfully.

"No?" Buffy responded skeptically. "Wait back up, you were going to create a world in which I never came to Sunnydale?"

"And what about Spike!" Xander sked.

"You guys just kept ignoring Angel so I needed to find a way for you to kind of shift in that direction." She explained.

"Again – WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST BRING ANGEL INTO THE LOOP?" Buffy exclaimed, really, really annoyed.

"There's some sort of weird mystical destiny intended for Angel by some very important people I do not want to piss off. Spike on the other hand – eh." She shrugged her shoulders.

"So how do we make this stop?" Buffy asked.

"You don't – they do." She explained, pointing to Teal'c and Jack who stood stoically with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

"So that's it?" Xander asked. "They stop the time loop on their end and then it will stop for us and we can go back to our lives?"

"Seems awfully anti-climactic…" Buffy responded. She turned to SG-1, "So – do you guys have everything you need to end this loop?"

All eyes turned to Daniel who seemed to be deep in thought, "sorry what?" He asked.

"Daniel! Can we end this loop?" Jack asked.

"Oh! Yeah – thanks to Angel's book, I believe I can fully translate the text on the podium." Daniel explained.

Jack looked at his watch, "Sorry kids – I don't believe we have enough time to get back to the base and convince Hammond to let us go off world before the day repeats itself. We did after all illegally commandeer a plane and a helicopter"

"That's OK – it would probably be good to have the chance to do this day right." Buffy explained. No one noticed the twinkle in the demon's eye.

Oz and Cordelia conveniently entered the library at just that moment for lunch, "What's all the commotion?" Cordelia asked, noticing the military personnel and apparently a new girl, "Hi! I'm Cordelia – who are you?" She unknowingly asked the demon.

"I'm Anya – a pleasure to meet you."

Following an entertaining afternoon and evening in which the two groups attempted to determine which group had saved the world the most, Buffy went home, relieved she would only have to relive this day once more.

But alas, the demon Anyanka would ensure neither Buffy nor Xander would remember all those Mondays, ensuring Xander and Willow were in fact caught and Cordelia's wish was granted as originally intended. And Buffy and Xander would never remember the Stargate or their epic Monday adventure.

Or would they?

* * *

 **Author's Note** : I hope you all enjoyed this - as you likely figured out this was a very ridiculous but hopefully funny story.

I have an epilogue drafted but am debating writing a sequel if I can come up with a worthy enough plot (I have the beginnings of something but need to rewatch season 4 of BTVS...hint hint)..

Until next time...


End file.
